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Twenty killed in terrorist attack on Burkina Faso restaurant

The attack by gunmen on diners sitting at a restaurant terrace in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou on Sunday left 20 dead, according to local officials, including at least one French national, 18 months after 30 people died in a jihadist attack on a nearby café. 

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

Twenty people have been killed and a number wounded in a terror attack in the centre of the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, the government says, reports BBC News.

Gunmen opened fire on customers seated outside a restaurant, witnesses said. Foreign nationals are among the dead, but details are still emerging.

The attack is now over, authorities say, with the two assailants also killed by security forces.

A jihadist attack on a nearby café killed 30 people in January last year.

There are fears that the latest attack is the work of one of the affiliates of al-Qaeda that are active in the Sahel region, the BBC's Alex Duval Smith reports.

Minister of Communication Remis Dandjinou confirmed on Monday that the attack was over, with security forces carrying out checks on neighbouring buildings.

The shooting began shortly after 21:00 on Sunday on Ouagadougou's busy Kwame Nkrumah Avenue.

Security forces launched a counter assault at 22:15 and the shooting ended at about 05:00 on Monday.

A Turkish restaurant, the Aziz Istanbul, popular with foreigners, appears to have been at the centre of the attack.

One eyewitness told the BBC: "I saw there were multiple trucks or jeeps driving through my street, with... local army/police officers with AK47s, deploying in front of my house.

"I heard a lot of shootings and then I was scared as hell and I went inside. I've been hearing quite a bit of shooting."

Police captain Guy Ye told Associated Press that the attackers had arrived on motorcycles and had begun shooting randomly.

The Turkish and French governments confirmed that they had lost one national each in the assault.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack and said he would hold talks with his Burkinabe counterpart, Roch Marc Kabore, to "evaluate the situation".

See more of this report, with video, from BBC News.